Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 31051 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31051 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
“I’m serious, Angel. I don’t get good vibes.” Gina and her vibes. But they are usually right so I really can’t give her a hard time about them. “Offering you a job? Yeah, more like his dick.” The cashier giggles.
“Gina.” I hiss her name.
“Doc Lucas better not find out about that.” Jimmy snickers as he bags the groceries. As if hearing his name, my phone begins to ring.
“Angel,” he says before I can say hello. “I miss you.”
“I miss you, too.” I don’t know how this man can still give me butterflies but he can.
“I wanted to call and tell you that I’ve got a lot to get done tonight but I’ll call you before you go to bed.”
“Okay. I love you.”
“I love you too, Angel. Save me some cookies.” I look to my sister Gina. She’s going to steal the extras and take them home with her.
“I can make no promises but I can always make more. Just for you.”
“You’re too good to me.” He is the one that is too good to be true.
“Don’t work too hard.”
“It’s the only way I work if it gets me back home to my wife.”
I really do have the perfect husband. He really would do anything for me.
Chapter Five
Lucas
I tuck my phone away. Angel and her sister will eat, knit, watch television and go to bed around ten. I have only five hours to complete my task. Richard Washington is very precise, as my wife said. His grass is so uniformly cut that I would not be surprised if he did it by hand. He probably killed his wife for not putting the remote in its proper place or something equally petty. He seems the type.
From my position at the end of his property, in the woods where he’s hidden a body of a transient woman that he killed, I can see him readying for his walk. A loud buzzing noise precedes him and his dog. I look up to see a drone flying overhead. The dog bolts forward, chasing the low-flying object. I set off on my path and strategically run into Washington close to a bend in the shoreline where a rock formation creates a small shelter.
“Doc,” Washington says in surprise. He’s not used to seeing people on his route. His eyes dart toward the back of the shelter. Is that where the wife’s body is? This is the perfect place to kill someone. It’s why I picked it. I shove my hands into my rubber trench coat and step forward. He makes an awkward sidestep, like he’s worried about disturbing the sand.
“How does it feel to be a free man?”
“How do you think it feels? Damn good. System was working for once.” Then, as if he remembers he should be sad, he adds, “But I want the real murderer to be found.”
I rub a toe in the ground. “If we had found your wife’s body, maybe the outcome would be different.”
He stiffens and the genial smile falls away. “Yeah, real tragedy about that.”
I brush more dirt away with my toe. He clears his throat and doesn’t speak until I raise my gaze to his. “You digging for something, Doc?”
There’s a light sheen around his neck. He’s starting to sweat over something.
“No. Not really.” I abandon the dirt and give him a direct stare. “Do you believe in balance, Washington?”
“Balance? What the hell are you talking about?”
“My wife said that you liked routines and order in your life. I’d imagine that people who mess things up make you mad.”
“What’s wrong with order? If you can’t remember simple rules and can’t execute simple tasks, you don’t really offer value in this world.”
“I’m in complete agreement with you. I don’t like those people either.” I pull the syringe out of my pocket and stab him in the neck before he has time to respond. “I don’t like them at all,” I murmur as he crumples to the ground.
I fix him up good, using my coroner’s scalpel with a new blade to slice away parts of his body until the silent tears run down the side of his face. I never kill a person the same way twice. Patterns and routines will always catch up with you.
After I extract a few bits of information such as where his wife’s body is and what secrets he knows about his lawyer, Chad, I finish my work.
The tide will come in, carry away his body, and wash it up on shore somewhere else. The salt water will eat away at his skin, making it hard for even a competent corner to determine exactly what tools were used to end this man’s life.
I dig up enough of the dirt to expose the wife’s arm before sending the drone back home. The dog follows, confirming my suspicions that Washington programmed the drone to take his dog for a walk while Washington murdered his wife in this cove.